Opinion on marketing, media & more by Kevin Dugan / @prblog since 07.02

09/22/2015

When it comes to your top technology, business or general news sources, I can probably assume The Wall Street Journal and/or New York Times are on your list. And in less than five years, I'm willing to bet Apple, Facebook or Google are also on your list...if they aren't already.

The three brands are in a three-way competition for the ultimate prize: audience. As they compete for consumer attention, the news is just one way they're trying to become ingrained in your daily habits. In the process, they are driving much of the technological changes that, in turn, shape consumer media habits*.

In fact, to stay current with many of the trends impacting consumer habits, you might focus on just Apple, Facebook and Google as a more mainstream source for emerging trends.

Internal collaboration is equally important--and almost as rare. Industry discussions around social media, public relations and content marketing provide one example. These discussions seem more focused on one discipline claiming ownership of the others than on how they can make something better by working together.

Stop, Collaborate (& Listen)Content marketing is certainly the beneficiary of other disciplines--including paid media, search marketing, graphic design, web/app development and social media. The above visual looks at just a handful of ways social media can improve the content marketing process.

The article notes: "Rarely do you have one company that can pull off the kind of multichannel content necessary to reach targeted online and offline audiences."

And when it comes to content marketing, this quote usually applies at the team level too.

02/02/2015

Content curation is sometimes described as a "short cut" to creating content. Well, if you're doing it right, this assumption is incorrect. It can certainly be less resource-intensive over time -- by integrating tools like PublishThis into your CMS for example. But if you think it's as simple as copying and pasting a few random links, you're mistaken.

Here are six content curation principles to consider for your editorial process. Content curation is becoming a more important part of a brand's editorial mix, for several reasons.

06/30/2014

Facebook research has found that the emotions of others on your news feed can affect your mood. The social network did not inform users their news feeds were being manipulated as part of this study. And users are expressing outrage over the study's ethics.

Should Facebook have done things differently? Are the outraged consumers justified in their ire? To borrow a famous, and vague, Facebook relationship status: "it's complicated." But this news does hold lessons for brands.

02/25/2014

A recent BuzzFeed presentation inspired me to consider how marketers and publishers are tapping into nostalgia to push engagement online. Appealing to a consumer's sense of nostalgia is just one approach BuzzFeed recommends to crafting content readers will share with their friends.

This is not a subjective statement considering that BuzzFeed had 100 million unique visitors in January -- and half of them clicked through from shared BuzzFeed content.

The power of nostalgia is no surprise. It's always been popular; but it's taken on increased popularity in the last few years.

These examples suggest there are endless opportunities to tap into the consumer appeal of the past.

Nostalgia & Content Creation?If you're wondering how to apply nostalgia in your editorial strategy, there is no single, silver bullet answer -- per usual. It (always) goes back to how well you know your brand and your consumer. But here are some articles that will make it easier for you to tap nostalgia for deeper content engagement.

1) How the Internet Uses Nostalgia | The Atlantic: This story does a great job showing how the Internet has changed our sense of nostalgia. "Under the stewardship of the Internet, nostalgia has been made nimble. Our tenuous relationship with the past can now be customized and made relevant, in the manner of a marketing message. We search for a lost time. It's just that our seeking now stretches beyond our own meager memories."

"From Teen Beat to Cosmo to LiveJournal, quizzes are "reminiscent of playground games and give readers something that they relate to well enough that they share it with others. Quizzes lend themselves to mobile because people are taking them with friends or administering them to each other. In that way, they go from being digitally social to a literally social game for users."

3) What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit Research Shows | New York Times: Before 1999, anyone feeling homesick might have been described as suffering from a psychological disorder called nostalgia. Scientests then began researching nostalgia to show it can counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. The article also reviews other benefits and potential downsides.

Applying Best (or Worst) PracticesFor every best practice around nostalgia, I could probably point to a worst practice. And perhaps the quiz is one and the same. But instead of arguing about quizzes, let's consider the bigger picture of what BuzzFeed is doing.

BuzzFeed uses data to spot trends, optimize their editorial approach and capitalize on consumer interest as quickly as possible. And during the "bonus round" of quizzes we're experiencing, they're probably testing and learning from other forms of content. This broader approach is critical to content creation.

#ProTip: Ask Why, Not WhatThe abuse or overuse of a popular industry tactic, tool or approach is nothing new. So it's important for me to note that when it comes to quizzes, nostalgia or the next shiny new topic, we shouldn't simply chase someone else's success. I can point to a few examples of brands that tried to do this on the heels of Oreo's "Super Bowl Real-Time Marketing / Out of Body Experience / omigoditwassofu(k*ngawesomewheeeee!™"

There are plenty of good reasons to consider if nostalgia fits your editorial efforts. But like everything else we do, if we can't answer WHY we're doing it, the next question becomes "should we be doing it at all?"

Vice Media Doubles DownMore recently, Vice Media doubled the size of its news operations. Known for its online and TV programming, the outlet sees millennials as an underserved audience and is investing heavily to keep their attention.

A Long-Term Approach to Audience-BuildingAs many digital platforms try to find the right mix to boost unique visitors, page views and time on site, we’re seeing some do a better job than others. There is an unfortunate science behind the listicles, slide shows and more visual content some platforms have become known for publishing.

These approaches reward the publisher, not the marketers, providing artificial boosts to metrics. Appealing to a broader audience by expanding content is a much more long-term, sustainable investment.

11/08/2013

In reverence of the ink-stained ‎Hermann Rorschach, Google is doing it's trademark logo morphing today. New to me is their addition of sharing tools to the homage, allowing you to share their creative effort when you rollover it (as shown in the above screen grab).

Button, Button Who's Got the (Share) Button?Including the ability to share your content today is comparable to what print-friendly tools were to the web of 10 years ago. It's widespread but it's not second nature to include. And adding sharing tools can be executed artfully (like an inkblot), easily (like blogging platforms that have already added it for you) or poorly (like the multiple car horns Homer Simpson wanted in his concept car).

Thanks to folks like Tumblr, Wordpress and Typepad many content creators don't need to give social sharing a second thought. When they hit publish, they arm readers with the ability to share their content. But the above example, elegant in its simplicity, reminds me that we shouldn't assume our content is properly armed with the right tools.

Content, and our roles in creating it, are more broadly defined than ever before. We need to do more than simply confirm our content can be shared, we need to work with the design and development folks to make it work more intuitively acrosss platforms.

An Art & Science MixThis requires us to balance the aesthetic and the utility behind the content environment you're creating. Google nails this combination in the above example. But in other examples, it makes more sense to add "the F" and "the T" icons to your template -- in clear view of the reader -- and call it a day.

This also means you need to make sure its not confused with your social contact icons. Pro Tip: move those from the header to the footer. And don't forget it's a balance. Tools like ShareThis are more powerful and much more aesthetically smart. But adding even one click to the sharing process can impact the level of engagement your content creates.

So while the increased importance of sharing tools may lead us to believe it's a box we've checked off...and this discussion is a waste of time...I disagree. If we could compare the analytics around Google's logo projects, before and after sharing, I'm betting it would it prove out my simple observation.